2-914-112 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Monastery of St. George, near Balaclava - from a sketch by Lieut. Montagu O'Reilly, 1854. 'The monastery of St. George hangs, as it were, to the face of the cliff, and the only entrance to it is by a door and flight of steps cut into the rock at its summit. From a little terrace in front, a magnificent view over the Black Sea is obtained...[The monastery is] comfortably sheltered by the cliffs behind it from the cold winds which come across the barren steppes of the Crimea. The building consists of a small church, a large refectory, and some cells of medium size..."We descended by a narrow zigzag path, cut in the face of the mountain, on every nook or ledge of which the monks have planted trees and flowers, making little terraced gardens in the midst of the black charred cliffs. From the shore we looked up and perceived the monastery, some hundreds of feet above us...".' From "Illustrated London News", 1854.